Joy and I live in a neighborhood where real estate prices are relatively stable. They go up in good times but don't go down so much in bad times. But the Bush Recession has hit our neighborhood even if not as hard as many neighborhoods. Some people in our building have had to move out because of job insecurity, new children, etc. Yet we have noticed that for the first time since we moved here, sales have been very, very slow. Generally when an apartment hits the market in our building, it goes within a few weeks. But these days they often are on the market for months.

One of the signs I saw of an ailing economy was when open houses in our building went from crowded affairs with flocks of people coming in and out eager to see an apartment, to lonely affairs for the real estate agents, leaving them with time on their hands to chat in between the occasional looker who left without making an offer. Asking any of these real estate agents how it was going, "SLOW!" was always the emphatic response. And they would have a demoralized look on their face as if "SLOW" didn't even begin to convey how bad the market was.  read more »